Ray Smuts
JOHN WOODEND, Cape Town's popular port captain for the past six years, leaves office at the end of September but whether that sees him packing away his epaulettes and whites for keeps is still pretty much an open question.
The lure of returning to sea in a working capacity may just prove too strong.
Woodend, 61, is retiring two years early, by mutual agreement, and his number one priority is to take his wife Pat for a much-needed holiday to visit their daughters Dianne in London and Jenny in Dallas. A third daugher Angela lives in Piketberg near Cape Town.
Earlier this year Woodend told this correspondent he had been offered a post as master of one of Mercy Ships' vessels which he says is still pretty much an option but first, that holiday.
There have been highlights and lowlights in Cape Town but I have enjoyed every minute of it. Most difficult was making decisions on the turn and trying to be right all the time but I would like to think I was right most of the time.
As to whether Treasure, the bulk carrier which sank recently off Cape Town with devastating results for the ecology, can be considered one of his 'lowlights', he replies: It had nothing to do with the port but
I seem to have been blamed for
her (loss) and for every oil-soaked penguin.
It is a chuckling Peter Odendaal, chairman of the Association of Shipping Lines' Cape Town branch, who recalls an incident in Port Elizabeth in the early 1980s when Woodend, then a pilot, incurred the wrath of a ship's master by being late to take the vessel out, all because he had been unavoidably detained - stuck in the lift of another ship.
Says Odendaal: John has always been a pleasure to deal with. He is a very professional port captain, much of the old school and a marvellous character. We will be very sad to see him go.
Woodend's successor is Captain Eddie Bremner, 57, Saldanha Bay's port captain, who takes over officially on October 1.
I will miss Saldanha but I am very happy and looking forward to the challenges of my new appointment, says Bremner, who has witnessed substantial growth since taking over at Saldanha almost two years ago - including an increase in vessel movements from 781 to 950 up to April last year.
Bremner, a graduate of SA Nautical College General Botha in 1960, obtained initial experience as
navigation officer with Union Castle before joining the then South African Railways and Harbours
service in 1970.
Married with three children, he was mate and tugmaster in Port Elizabeth between 1970 and 1978 then for the next four years pilot in Walvis Bay before being appointed assistant port captain in the 'Windy City' and later port captain in East London from 1996 to 1998.
Ravi Naicker, port captain-in-training, will take over from Bremner at Saldanha pending final approval of the port captaincy there.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
